Hull extractor



June 24,- 1930- A. L. SMITH 1,766,312

HULL EXTRACTOR Filed April 25, 1928 By W, I

Attorneys Patented June 24, 1 930 I 1 766 3 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEALGERNON L. SMITH, OF BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA HULL EXTRACTOR Applicationfiled April 23, 1928. Serial No. 272,272.

My invention relates to an apparatus suitassociated with some suitableagency adaptable for the removal of hulls and foreign ed to retard thetravel of the hulls with atmatter from fibrous material such as seedtached seed cotton through the apparatus, cotton and is moreparticularly concerned allowing only the desired percentage there- 5with improving and perfecting the hull exof to pass directly to the nextsucceeding 55 tractor which forms the subject matter of saw cylinder,and yet holding back sulfi- Letters Patent No. 1,656,398, issued to mecient hulls and foreign matter sothat the on January 17th, 1928.- rateof travel of the product to the hull Prior to the invention described inmy discharge is sufficiently reduced to provide aforesaid LettersPatent, machines for the for effective separation of the hulls. c0removal of hulls and the like from seed cot- My invention furthercontemplates the ton generally comprised a saw cylinder or arrangementbelow the saw assembles of a like element with which was associated onplurality of cleaning drums arranged to reits up-going side, i. e., onthe side toward ceive the seed cotton as it is discharged from theapproaching seed cotton and hulls to be the saw cylinders and pass thesame over treated, a stripper roller having a direction suitable screensfor the removal of shale of rotation that would cause it to knock alland dirt before the cleaned seed cotton is of the hulls and foreignmatter engaged by passed to the discharge opening provided it back intothe seed cotton and hulls under therefor.

20 treatment. It is within the contemplation of my in- I In my patentedhull extractor the stripper Vention that desirable results can beobroller was arranged to co-act with the downtamed, particularly in thefield, by the treatgoing side of the saw cylinder or equivalent ment ofthe seed cotton and bolls with a element, that is to say, it co-actedwith the single saw assembly.

t 25 side of the saw away from the seed cotton My invention furthercomprises the novel and hulls approaching the saw for treat- (letailsofconstruction and arrangements of ment. It was considered necessary thata parts, which are hereinafter more particuplurality of saw cylinders bearranged to act larly described and claimed, reference beingsuccessively on the hulls as they were dehadto the accompanying drawingsfor illus- 3o flected from the seed cotton by the successive trativepurposes. so stripper rollers. In actual practice, with a In the.drawings a longitudinal vertical machine embodying the principles ofconcross section is shown through an apparatus struction and operationdescribed in my Letembodying my invention and providing a ters Patentaforesaid, it was found that the plurality of saw assembles adapted tosue- 35 seed cottonand hulls tended to travel too cessively act upon theseed cotton and hulls rapidly through the machine, thereby necesbeforethe separated hulls are discharged. sitating either that a greaternumber of saw In the drawings, 2 indicates the inlet cylinders, or theirequivalent assembles, be through which the seed cotton and hulls, orused, or that some means be provided that like hbrous material to betreated, enters 40 would retard their rate of travel of the the hullextractor casing 8. A suitable hulls with attached seed cotton throughthe deflecting valve 4 is pivotally mounted withmachine. in the casingso as to deliverseed cotton, My present invention is concerned with notrequiring treatment in the machine, to the solving of the problem abovereferred the passage 5 through which it will fall to 45 to and itcontemplates maintaining the stripthe outlet 6 for the cleaned seedcotton, the per rollers on the down-going side of their lower deflectingvalve 7 being shifted to respective saws or in such relation thereto itsdotted position under such operating as to be able to pass hulls to thehull disconditions. When it is desired however to charge or to the nextsucceeding saw, each treat the'cotton in the apparatus, the de- 5 sawand its respective stripper roller being fiectors 4 and 7 are shifted totheir full line position and then the entering cotton and hulls will beengaged by the toothed cylinder 8, and this cylinder is rotatedcounter-clockwise as shown, i. e., so as to carry the cotton and hullsinwardly of the apparatus and towards the hull discharge chute 9. Thehulls are engaged by a stripper roller 10 also rotatingcounter-clockwise and so disposed that it will knock the hulls upwardlyand away from the seed cotton being engaged by the cylinder 8.Experience has shown that this stripper roller 10 gives bestsatisfaction when co-acting with the down-going side of the cylinder 8and it must be located in such position that it will not act to knockall of the hulls back into the material engaging the toothed cylinder 8,as this would cause the hulls to be unduly cut up. By setting thestripper roller substantially as shown, a large percentage of the hullsengaged by it will be passed directly to the succeeding toothed cylinder8, or, where a single toothed cylinder assembly is used, the hulls willbe passed directly to the hull outlet.

In order to prevent the hulls with attached seed cotton passing toorapidly to the hull outlet and to insure the proper removal of the seedcotton from the hulls, I arrange suitable retarding agencies to slow upthe travel of the hulls towards the outlet 9 and to regulate theirescape from each toothed cylinder assembly. The preferred means is aspiked roller 11 rotating also counter-cloclnvise and associated abovewith a spiked bafile 12 extending approximately to the top wall of thecasing, and adjusted to prevent the escape of the hulls except betweenthe elements 10 and 11.

In the apparatus shown, the hulls with any attached seed cottondischarged from the first toothed cylinder assembly will be engaged bythe second toothed cylinder as sembly comprising a cylinder 8 with whichwill co-act the elements 10, 11 and 12* with the same arrangement andresults as described for the correspondingelements 8, 10, 11 and 12. Thehulls and any remaining seed cotton associated therewith will bedelivered to the third toothed cylinder assembly comprising the cylinder8 stripper roller 10 spiked roller 11 and baffle 19), and this assemblywill in turn deliver the remaining hulls to the final toothed cylinderassembly comprising the cylinder 8, stripper roller 10, spiked roller 11and balile 12, the hulls from this toothed cylinder assembly beingdelivered to the hull outlet 9.

Any suitable provision may be made for removing the seed cotton adheringto the toothed cylinders, the apparatus shown comprising dofiing meanssuch as the brush 13 co-acting with the cylinders 8 and S, and the brush13 co-acting with the cylinders 8 and 8. Suitable separators and crossconnecting elements 1 1 and 141 are provided between the pairs ofcylinders above each dofling brush.

The seed cotton discharged from the toothed cylinders falls upon thespiked cleaner drums 15, 15, 15 and 15, which all rotatecounter-clockwise and thus collect and carry the seed cotton to the leftside of the machine and then pass it back over the screen concaves 16,16, 16 and 16 and deliver it into the seed cotton outlet 6. The dirt andtrash removed through the screens falls into a hopper 17 and passesthrough a suitable discharge.

In operation, the seed cotton and hulls as they enter are quicklyengaged by the toothed cylinder 8 and carried over to the adjacentstripper roller 10 which tends to disengage the hulls and pass them veryrapidly to the hull discharge or to the next succeeding toothed cylinder8. The retarding agency in the form of thespiked roller 11 and baffle12, acts to prevent the hulls passing as it were too rapidly to the nexttoothed cylinder or to the hull discharge, but it is adapted to permitthe major part of the hulls to pass thus directly, holdin back justenough to insure that the desired percentage of seed cotton will beremoved from the hulls before they pass to the next toothed cylinderassembly or to the dis charge. Hence, in field work, the seed cotton andhulls can be subjected to a single treatment, the defied seed cottonpassing to the cotton outlet and the extracted hulls to the hull outlet,but for the more effective treatment a plurality of toothed cylinderassembles is desirable, It is also desirable that the cylinders shouldbe arranged substantially on a level so that gravity does not tend toaccelerate the travel oi the hulls to the discharge. Such horizontalarrangement of the saw cylinders, however, is to be regarded aspreferable only because the retarding agencies provided can be designedand adapted to so control the rate of flow, Whether horizontally ordownwardly, of the hulls through the treatment space that the saws willhave the necessary opportunity for removing the seed cotton from thehulls without at the same time unduly cutting up the hulls andincreasing the amount of hull trash and shale in the seed cotton to anobjectionable extent.

Though I have described with great particularity the details of theembodiment of the invention herein shown, it is not to be construed thatI am limited thereto, as changes in arrangement and substitution ofequivalents may be made by those skilled in the art without departingfrom the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention,

what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an apparatus for the removal of hulls and trash from seed cottonor the like, a casing having a feed inlet, a seed cotton outlet, a hulloutlet and a plurality of toothed cylinders disposed to engage the hullsand seed cotton successively and rotatable in a direction to move thehulls progressively towards the hull outlet, a group of agenciesassociated with each saw cylinder, each group comprising a stripperroller so disposed and rotated as to be adapted to deliver the hullsknocked ofl of a cylinder to the next succeeding cylinder, and a meansto regulate the rate of delivery of the hulls by a picker roller of onegroup to the cylinder of the succeeding group.

2. In an apparatus for removing hulls from seed cotton and the like, acasing having a feed opening, a toothed cylinder adapted to engage theentering seed cotton and hulls, a rotating stripper element coactingwith the down-going side of the said cylinder remote from the feedopening and adapted to deliver hulls engaged thereby to a second sawcylinder, a second toothed cylinder having the same direction ofrotation as the first mentioned cylinder, agencies co-acting with thefirst mentioned stripper element to control the rate of feed of thehulls thereby to the second toothed cylinder, a stripper meansassociated with the second toothed cylinder, and agencies to dofi' thecotton from said cylinders.

In an apparatus for hulling seed cotton and the like according to claim2, in which the toothed cylinders are arranged with their axes in asubstantially horizontal plane.

4. An apparatus for removing hulls from seed cotton and the like,comprising a casing having a feed opening, a toothed cylinder adapted todraw seed cotton and hulls inwardly from the opening, a stripper rollerco-acting with the toothed cylinder on its down-going side remote fromthe feed opening and having the same direction of rotation as thetoothed cylinder, a spiked roller arranged above the stripper roller andhaving a like direction of rotation, and a second group of agenciescorresponding to those above described, the toothed cylinder of thesecond group being adapted to receive hulls and any adhering seed cottonin regulated and controlled volume from the first mentioned group ofagencies, and separate outlets for the hulls and seed cotton.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

ALGERN ON L. SMITH.

